After winning a landslide victory in France, conservative President Jacques Chirac now faces the challenge of winning over the electorate that banded together to support him over his far-right opponent.

French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin has officially announced his resignation, paving the way for President Jacques Chirac to name a successor.

Jean Marie Le Pen prepared his supporters for defeat at his final press conference in Paris yesterday.

A French secret service estimate that made its way into journalists’ e-mails in Paris last Friday said that Jean-Marie Le Pen could get 41% of the vote in the French presidential election on Sunday.

French President Jacques Chirac appealed today to left-wing voters, asking for their help to defeat National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.

The leader of France’s extreme right National Front party Jean Marie Le Pen has achieved a stunning first round presidential election result forcing voters to choose between him and conservative incumbent Jacques Chirac.

Early turnout in the first round of voting for a French president was the lowest in two decades.

France went going to the polls today in the first round of a presidential contest notable for its lacklustre campaigning and widespread voter apathy.

Around 14,000 people have paid tribute to eight officials who died when a gunman opened fire at a council meeting in France.

French premier Lionel Jospin, the socialist’s presidential candidate, today unveiled what he called his ‘‘ambition for France.’’

Two French radio journalists have been killed when their convoy was ambushed in north-east Afghanistan.

French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin says the fight against terror is a "common imperative" for all democracies, and France was committed to supporting a US retaliation.

French President Jacques Chirac has responded angrily to a prosecutor’s ruling that he can be questioned as a witness in a scandal involving cash payments for personal trips while he was mayor.

French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin today announced a £1.15bn project to make high-speed Internet access available to all parts of France within five years.

France was in the dock at the European Court of Justice today accused of breaking EU law by refusing to import British beef.

The Taoiseach is playing down suggestions of a row between himself and the French Prime Minister over tax harmonisation.

French premier Lionel Jospin today stepped into the growing dispute about Europe’s future, calling for a European constitution, an ‘‘economic government’’ and a ‘‘social treaty’’, all run by a ‘‘federation of nation states’’.

THE ‘battle for Paris’ drew to a cliffhanging close yesterday as stragglers cast their final votes in municipal polls which could see the end of 130 years of right wing rule in the French capital.

French socialists today moved into position to wrest Paris from the right in the first round of municipal elections but failed to carry the country as polls had predicted.